WA Government allocates $3m for battery materials laboratory in Bentley

A new research and development laboratory facility has opened in Bentley, marking another milestone being met in WA’s path to becoming a global battery materials manufacturing hub.

Through its Investment Attraction Fund, the WA State Government has allocated $3m to local company AustVolt, which is working towards developing and producing battery precursor cathode active material (pCAM).

pCAM is a vital component for manufacturing lithium battery cells which have a range of uses including in electric vehicles.

This new Bentley facility will allow AustVolt to produce samples of its pCAM product, which can be used in battery manufacturing trials within the electric vehicle industry.

It marks an important step towards AustVolt’s full-scale manufacturing facility, which, when built, will be able to produce 40,000t of pCAM per year — enough to develop hundreds of thousands of lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries.

The hub will be situated on an 8.8ha piece of land in the Rockingham-Kwinana strategic industrial area.

Work is expected to begin next year.

WA premier Roger Cook commented on the facility.

“WA is positioning as a leader in the global supply chain for battery manufacturing and with this latest investment in AustVolt, we are making sure WA is in the box seat as the world shifts to a low-carbon future,” he said.

“Today’s opening of the AustVolt pCAM laboratory is another step towards WA becoming a major player in lithium battery manufacturing.”